Grand Canyon - Day 2

Another sunny cool day on the north rim and it was a day for a hike...below the rim.

The only maintained trail into the canyon on the North Rim is the North Kaibab Trail, which is a 14 mile trip down to the Colorado River (and 14 miles back up). We were not going to do all of that today. Half of the 4,700 foot descent is in the first four miles, so it is steepest near the top. We were going to walk down to the Supai Tunnel, a bit less than 2 miles from the top.

But first we had to get to the trailhead. When we first thought of doing this hike, it seemed that we would have to drive to the trailhead. The parking lot there is on a fairly steep incline and it would have taken a lot of leveling to be able to safely leave Speedy's propane refrigerator on. While looking at one of the campground bulletin boards, I saw a very detailed map of the area around the campground. It showed that a spur of the Bridal Path, which we've taken to the North Rim Lodge, went straight to the North Kaibab Trailhead. It added an extra mile overall, but meant we could leave Speedy safely parked at the campsite.

After a fairly leisurely breakfast (maybe a bit too leisurely), we headed out of the campground around 8:30am, went left at the Bridal Path and walked to the trailhead. We then headed down the trail...and down it was. The Supai tunnel was an 1,100 foot decent in 1.7 miles, but we had views down the canyon and, as we descended, up to the cliffs we had traversed. It was a great hike down, except for one thing—mules!

The North Kaibab Trail is used for mule-back tours down as far as the Supai Tunnel. Mules tear up the trail, making big troughs as they go up and down the steps of the steep parts. But the worst part is the mule droppings. At every turn, the mule trains seem to stop as they go around the tight switchback corners. Every time they stop, they seem to drop a load. There were places were it was so bad that we had to literally go off the trail to avoid walking in it.

This seems to be a contradiction in park policy. If you are camping in the backcountry, you are required to bury your waste. If you are walking your dog, you are required to pick up after it. If you have a bicycle, you cannot ride it on any trails, because it might cause damage. But, mules are allowed to tear up and greatly foul the most popular trails in the park.

Enough of my soapbox, back to the hike. We made it down to the Supai Tunnel by about 10:15, where there were a number of other hikers. We had not seen many others on our way down, in contrast to our hike down the Braight Angel Trail two years ago. It was actually a great, quiet, experience hiking down a beautiful trail in peace. There is water and vault toilets at the Supai Tunnel, so it is a stopping place for both day hikers like us and those going to and from the river. Most of those hikers were doing rim-to-rim hikes, usually over two or three days. We met several groups at Supai tunnel who were coming out of the canyon, having started early from Cottonwood Campground, about half way up the trail.

After a short rest, we continued through the Supai Tunnel, a short tunnel cut through the rock, not high enough for the mules to go through, so there was no mule waste on the other side. This is one advantage over the Bright Angel and South Kiabab Trails from the South Rim. There the mule trains go all the way to Phantom ranch on the river. The North Kaibab enters its steepest stretch after the tunnel and we could look down at the many switchbacks in that section. It goes down over another 1,000 feet in about a mile. We turned back.

It was, as one would expect, a bit of a slog out of the canyon. Not only is it steeply uphill, it had also gotten quite warm. We had a lot respect for the hikers coming up from the river with full packs. We just had our day packs with jackets, water and lunch. The upward views, when I had enough energy to look up at them, were pretty spectacular, too. We made the top at just about lunch time. Since we had brought lunch with us, we decided to just sit there in the shade and eat it, rather than walk it back to our campsite. We chatted with several of the rim-to-rim hikers as they also reached the top.

It was back to Speedy for an afternoon of rest and recovery, but we couldn't stop walking. About 3pm, we walked up to the rim to make a couple of phone calls. It just added another three miles to our day. It was back to Speedy via the Transept Trail along the rim and an early dinner in order to make it to the 7pm ranger talk on bats. It was an interesting presentation, but it was getting very cool and we were a little underdressed. We quickly left at the end and returned to a relatively warm Speedy and called it a night.

Photos of the North Kaibab Trail